Egyptian culture (II): Egyptian art

Egyptians were very good architects, they built a lot pyramids, tombs, palace and temples
The main characteristic of ancient Egyptian architecture were monumental, geometric regular and a deep symbolism, each work represented a lot of political or religious ideas.
Most Egyptian art had a religious meaning ( temples and tombs ) but on the other hand other works of art had a political meaning in order to show the pharaoh´s power.

Temples They were the place were Egyptians worshipped their gods. Each god had its own temple. The temples had different parts with varied sizes and heights: sacred way decorated with sphinxes, pylons, colonnaded courtyard , hypostyle hall, and sanctuary.

Temple is the residence of Gods, they lives in the sanctuary and only priest can go into it. The main temples of this kind were Karnak, Luxor and Edfu, .
But there were other kinds of temples as temples excavated in the rock as Abu Simbel created by Ramesse II the Great.

Tombs . There were different kind of tombs depending on the time:

Mastaba . It was the oldest kind of burial and it was mostly subterranean with a quadrangular building above.

Pyramid. It was the most famous burial of Old and Middle Kingdom. The most famous pyramids are in Giza and were constructed by pharaohs of 4º dynasty ( Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos )

Hypogeum . It was a completely subterranean tomb and it was formed by a narrow corridor with paintings on both sides and a final burial chamber. There were typical on the New KIngdom and the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens were the main example.

They were related to the architecture and were considerate as decoration. The changed very little in 3000 years and had very strict rules:

Figures were painted without perspective.

Objects and the human bodies were seen from the front but the head was in profile